Talor Battle became the first Big Ten player in history to score 2,000 points, dish out 500 assists and grab 500 rebounds in his career with his 13-point, 3-assist performance on Thursday night as Penn State kept their slim tourney hopes alive by defeating Northwestern 66-52.

In addition to being the first Big Ten player to achieve this accomplishment, he is only the tenth player in Division I history to reach this plateau.

Jeff Brooks led all Nittany Lion scorers with 20 points and Tim Frazier continued to bloom into the leader that this team will need next year by posting his first career double-double with 10 points and 10 assists.

Penn State opened on a 18-2 run in the game’s first seven minutes, but the Wildcats closed the gap to three as the teams headed into halftime. A balanced scoring effort which included points from all four senior starters, ending with consecutive three-pointers from Jeff Brooks, built the lead back up to 11 halfway through the second half and the Nittany Lions did not look back from there.

Penn State now sits at 15-12 overall and 8-8 in the Big Ten with big games next week to close out the season. An upset of Ohio State on Tuesday’s Senior Night would give a huge bump to the Nittany Lion tournament resume and next Sunday’s game against Minnesota may be a must-win no matter what heading into the Big Ten Tournament. It is certainly going to be an interesting next couple weeks for this Penn State basketball team.

Cleaning the Glass:

• Penn State shot 56.5% from the field on Thursday night.
• Still a concern going into tournament season is bench production. It was a problem last night again as Cammeron Woodyard had the bench’s only two points of the night.
• Michael Thompson led Northwestern with 22 points.
• After Thursday night’s games, Penn State sits alone in 5th place in the Big Ten.